Grief
by Scarpaw
Summary: Because no one's grief goes unnoticed by the Earl. However, if you're lucky, you may be able to make it out with your life. Young!Ryou fic


So, I just got this idea randomly last night after I updated _Allure_, so I started typing it. It went from one ending to another, and it wound up like this~! It mainly stemmed from the idea of 'What if the Earl visited Ryou after his mom and Amane died?'

This is another Young!Ryou fic, and it's pre-Bakura, so Ryou doesn't have the Ring yet [seeing as I don't know when exactly Ryou got the Ring, it actually works...]

There are some spoilers, but not many if you have knowledge of both anime/mangas. Pretty much, if you've read past the attack by the Level 4 on HQ for D,Gray-Man you're good. None that I can think of for Yu-Gi-Oh...

Please read and enjoy! ^_^

**Warning[s]?: Spoilers [mentioned above] and that's pretty much it.**

"This is regular talking..."

_**"This is a voice from the distance..."**_

_"This... is... an... AKUMA!" XP_

**Disclaimer: D,Gray-Man belongs to Hoshino Katsura and Yu-Gi-Oh belongs to Takahashi Kazuki. Seeing as my name is neither of those, it's safe to assume that I don't own them. ^_^**

_**Grief**_

"Mother! Amane! No! Don't leave! Please!" A small boy sobbed, burying his face and tears into the mattress of his now-lifeless older sisters' hospital bed. Ryou couldn't stop the tears, it hurt so badly. Why did they have to leave him?

It wasn't fair! Everybody always left him! They left him all alone, and Ryou didn't like being by himself.

"Ryou, come." His father was stoic, ordering his youngest- and now only -child back to him as an owner would call back a pet. Ryou wiped his eyes and try to stop the tears and staunch the sniffling and run of snot, but it was too hard and he just relented and allowed the tears to flow. How come father wasn't affected? Didn't he care about mother or Amane at all?

The man didn't even place a comforting hand on his sons' shoulder as he led his way out into the wet night to a car that Ryou didn't even want to clamber into. Mother and Amane died because of a car crash, how was he sure that they weren't, too, going to die? Or, maybe that was his plan.

As the father and son left the hospital, neither of them took the time to look back into the building that they had just left. If they had, maybe they would've seen. Maybe they would've had a suspicion.

Maybe they would've been able to prevent what was to come.

And inside a nurse picked up the phone and dialed a certain person…

_4**2**4**-2**5**6**4_

_**Shi**ni__** Shi**ni __**Ku**ro**shi**_

_**X.x.X.x.X**_

The funeral had been a simple affair. Family, close friends, a nice eulogy done by the Pastor of the Church they frequented, and beautiful flowers to adorn the graves.

People milled about in the church afterwards, offering their condolences to the family, but Ryou held back, trying to disappear within the shadows of the church walls, trying to hide from everybody. Why were they so _happy_? Why were they acting as if somebody's world didn't just fall apart? Didn't they care about mother or Amane? Didn't they care _at all?_

"Why aren't you with everybody else?" A voice suddenly appeared, and Ryou jumped, looking. It was one of the priests. Ryou didn't see nor associate with them often, but he had heard before that the priests worked for the Vatican- whatever that was -and most kids generally stayed away from them. There was a rumor that they liked to steal little kids and take them away to their base far away in the mountains, but Ryou wasn't too sure if it was true. Still, it never hurt to be too careful.

"'Cause I don't have to be." Ryou retorted, voice snappish. "Why do you care?"

"…You're upset." It was a calm observation, yet it made Ryou's blood boil for some reason. "Which is understandable- your mother and sister left and moved on. They can't come back."

"Shut up!" Ryou snapped at the priest, feeling his face flush. This priest was taking everything that had happened and was throwing it at his face, acting as if Ryou should just kill his heart and not care about what happened to his family.

"Now-" The priest started to say something, but Ryou wasn't about to listen to his lecture. He didn't want to hear it; he just wanted his mother and sister back! He didn't care if the priest or anybody else told him they weren't able to come back- he wanted them back!

"Leave me alone!" Ryou pushed the priest aside and ran outside and into the pouring rain that was sluicing around the church yard and the cemetery.

Tears burned in his eyes, blinding his vision, but they were disguised by the harsh rainfall as Ryou ran all the way back to the fresh graves of his mother and Amane. He didn't care about the lecture he was going to receive from father for dirtying his suit as he collapsed to his knees on Amane's grave, all but shoving his hands into his eyes, trying to stop the tears.

"Please, please, give them back!" Ryou cried. "Please God, why did you have to take them away from me?"

"Yes, why did that deplorable God have to take them away from you, young boy?" A voice asked from above Ryou, and his hands snapped away from his eyes as he looked up at the person, sniffling and wiping away his tears to the best of his ability.

It was a big, fat man wearing a top hat that was decorated with some blue flowers. He was dressed in a suit and had a pair of glasses perched on his nose- and, Ryou noticed, his ears were bigger than any person he had ever seen. He held a pink umbrella with a pumpkin top in his hands. He looked quite comical, and if he hadn't been before Ryou right now, he would've thought he was a monster from that new card game. He looked like he could be about a three star monster.

"Wh-Who are you?" Ryou asked, not knowing why he seemed so hesitant.

"Why I'm the Millennium Earl!" He had a grin on his face that never stopped; Ryou was surprised that he was able to talk without moving his teeth or anything. Maybe he was a person who made puppets talk? "You've been robbed my boy, by that evil God of yours!"

"I've been… robbed?" Ryou echoed, and the Earl nodded.

"Yes," The Earl affirmed. "But I can bring them back for you!" Ryou felt a smile appear on his face as he stood up, hope reappearing in his heart.

He could bring Amane and mother back? Was that even possible?

Briefly the priest's words echoed in his ears, but he shook his head clear of it.

"You can really bring them back?" Hope was evident in Ryou's voice shaking from anticipation and happiness.

"Why, of course!" The Earl smiled [although, it seemed like he never stopped smiling- or, at least, grinning -in Ryou's opinion. Maybe it was from helping so many people?] and pointed his umbrella towards the ground.

Out of the wet dirt and mud appeared a frame holding what looked to be a skeleton.

But only one. Did that mean that Ryou was only able to bring one person back? That was alright though; he knew who he was going to call back.

"Now my boy," The Ear said, hovering above the frame of the skeleton [how he was doing that, Ryou didn't know, but for some reason, he didn't feel too worried about it], "All you have to do is call out the name of your loved one, and their soul will come back and occupy this body I have so lovingly created for them."

Call their name? That didn't seem too hard.

"Call it real loud," The Earl encouraged. "So they can hear you." Ryou nodded and took a deep breath and…

"_**Amane!**_" He cried as loud as he possibly could in hopes of calling his sister back to the living just as a different voice called out through the now-silent cemetery [as the rain had stopped at some point when the Earl arrived].

"_**Don't!"**_ The other voice shouted, but it was too late.

There was a big flash of light that enveloped the skeleton, before an upside down star appeared on the skeleton's forehead, Amane's name inscribing itself in cursive right underneath it.

"_Wh…at?" _His sister's voice was disjointed as she moved about in the skeleton, swinging new arms and moving with new feet. "_What… happened? Ryou… what did you do to me?"_

Tears sprang to Ryou's eyes as he heard his sister's angry voice. Why wasn't she happy? Why was she angry?

"Now my Akuma," The Earl sounded gleeful as he… floated in air? "Kill that boy and wear his skin as your own!"

Kill…

_Kill…_

**Kill?**

Ryou took a stumbling step away from the monster that was his sister as it advanced towards him.

"_Ry…ou…"_ His sister's voice forced its way through the monster's mouth. "_R…Run! Run away!"_ But Ryou was frightened, and he tripped over his feet, falling to the ground. He could only cower back in fear as the monster [Akuma...?] that was his sister advanced towards him, to kill him.

"_**Lenalee, get him!"**_ The voice from before shouted, and just as the sword that had just been his sister's arm swung down at him to kill him, Ryou found himself being swept off the ground and into the air.

"Hey, it's alright," The person holding him- Lenalee? -said as Ryou forced himself to open his eyes. He had shut them when Amane had started to bring her sword down upon him. "You're safe now."

It was a girl, Ryou now noticed as he opened his eyes, blinking them for good effort. She was way older than him- close to Amane's age. She had short dark hair- black, maybe?-, and dark purple eyes. And, somehow, she was keeping them afloat in the middle of the air, like they were flying.

"Exorcists?" The Earl spoke, making it sound like a question and a statement at the same time.

"Good Evening Earl," The voice from before spoke, and Ryou twisted to see who it was. It was a boy, probably around Lenalee's age, with white hair, just like Ryou's own. He was wearing a white cloak, and his left arm was black and his fingers were claw-like, and the tips of them were easily brushing the ground.

"Allen Walker." The Earl all but growled. They… knew each other? How?

"We're enemies," Lenalee spoke, answering his unsaid question, but, then again, Ryou probably spoke out loud. He had a tendency to do that from time to time.

"Enemies?" Ryou repeated, trying to understand. So, they fought a lot? Then, with Ryou's infinite little kid wisdom, he asked,

"Why can't they just make up and become friends again?" Lenalee let out a small laugh, and Ryou looked up to see her shaking her head just a tiny bit.

"If only it were that easy." Lenalee answered, a hint of sadness evident in her voice.

"Huh?" Ryou gave a questioning look up towards her and she shook her head.

"It's nothing you need to worry about." She gave a small smile. "But you need to know, see the Earl?" Ryou nodded, looking down at the scene once more. "He's the bad guy."

"How?" Ryou asked. How could someone who helps people be the bad guy?

"He pretends to help people by saying that he'll bring their loved ones back after they die." Lenalee explained patiently in a calm voice. "But he's really only helping himself, because he forces the souls that are brought back from the dead to kill people, starting with the person who called them back."

"So Amane really was going to kill me?" Ryou asked, his voice small. "B-but my sister would never do that!"

"It doesn't matter to the Earl," Lenalee answered, her feet making no sound as they hit they soft ground, setting Ryou down as well. "The souls come back because of his power, and then he controls them to do what he wants."

"A… Akuma?" Ryou repeated the word that the Earl had called his sister earlier. Lenalee looked down at Ryou, a confused expression appearing on her face. "That's what they're called, right? Akuma? That's what my sister is, isn't it?" Tears were forming in Ryou's eyes again, and he tried his hardest to force them back.

Ryou took a shaky step towards the skeleton/Akuma that was his older sister.

"Is that even my sister anymore?" Tears were falling down his cheeks as he reached a hand out towards her.

"_Ry…ou…" _Amane's voice echoed through the graveyard once more, the skeletal body making a lunge at the boy once more.

Ryou was jerked out of the path of death once more by Lenalee, but not before one of Amane's swords caught him against the arm. He gasped and clutched his hand against the wound, blood seeping between his fingers. It… It really wasn't his sister anymore. His sister would never do that! Not even if she was forced to by someone else, she would never hurt him. She had always told him that, and Amane would never lie to him- she never did.

"Can I see your arm?" Lenalee asked, kneeling down in front of him, turning him in one swift motion so that his back was to Amane. Ryou gave her a suspicious look, but nodded hesitantly as he held his arm out and removed his hand from over the wound.

From what Ryou could tell, there was nothing wrong with it, except for the excessive bleeding, though Lenalee was acting as if she was expecting something terrible to happen because he got cut, like he was going to die or something because of it… [But then again, the Earl _had_ told Amane to kill him…]

There was a scream from behind him, but as he started to turn to see what it was Lenalee put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it and gaining his attention.

"What?" Ryou asked, and Lenalee hummed, eyes staring behind Ryou more than at him, before shaking her head and standing up, removing her hand from his shoulder.

"It's nothing." Lenalee answered, and Ryou turned around to look in the direction she had been staring.

The Earl was gone, and so was Amane. The only person left was that Allen Walker, and the weird cloak he had been wearing was gone, and his oddly big left hand looked like a normal one now- well, almost [from what Ryou could see it was still black.]

"What… happened?" Ryou asked as the other boy walked up to him and Lenalee. The two shared a look, and Lenalee gave a conspiratorial wink as she placed her finger against her lips.

"It's a secret, 'kay? We can't tell you otherwise you'll be in danger. Alright?" Ryou nodded in agreement, even though there was a part of him screaming at him to speak up and out against, that something wasn't right here. But he just complied, because something was telling him that although he should say something against it that it was better to keep his mouth shut and go along with it for the better.

From off in the distance, he could hear a voice calling, and Ryou knew that it was his father calling. He gave what felt to be a truly fake cheerful smile to the two as he waved goodbye to them and ran down from the cemetery towards the church where he knew his father would be waiting for him.

It was alright with him that he didn't find out the truth.

Because, he knew, one day he would find it out himself, one way or the other.

_**~~Owari~~**_

The 'Shini Shini Kuroshi' thing near the beginning is thanks to my friend, who told me before that it was from a different anime... [Hell Girl, I think...] In Japanese it's both the numbers 4[shi] 2[ni] 5[go/ku] 6[ro/roku], and also put together as Shini Shini Kuroshi [which I'm not confident on correct spelling] stands for Death Death Murder. Which I found appropriate as the Earl's phone number, thus it is that! ^_^

I left it vague for Ryou's age so you could make your own opinions.

Oh, and about the part with the Earl as a Duel Monster card, I swear- and I'm not lying -there is a person out there who made Duel Monster Cards for D,Gray-Man. The Millennium Earl is a Twelve Star Ritual Monster who is summoned by having three cards with 'Noah' in the name face up on your side of the field and by offering as tribute two or more cards with 'Exorcist' or 'Exorcist Marshall' in the name whose stars total twelve or more. The Spell Card you need is 'Summoning of the Earl.' He has 5000 ATK and DEF points.

But, then again, the D,Gray-Man cards aren't real [darn it!] so you don't have to worry about this. Although, if they _were_ real, I'd buy them all in a heart beat... *sigh*

That's enough though. Review and tell me what you think please! ^_^

Thanks~!

~~Paw-Chan Signing Out~~

P.S.~ If anybody wants to check out those D,Gray-Man Yu-Gi-Oh cards, here's the website- you just need to remove the spaces.

http: / forum . yugiohcardmaker . net/topic/235997-dgray-man-yu-gi-oh-cards-completed/

P.S.S.~ Also, the reason why Ryou didn't die was because lower level Akuma hold poison in their bullets, no where else, so he got to live. [I know this is a bad example, but remember when *SPOILER?* Allen got attacked by Mana for his curse mark *END?*. He didn't die then, so why would Ryou die now?]

P.P.S.S.~ Link's out making cookies. That's why he wasn't here. You can have one if you want. ^_^


End file.
